backed by coalition airstrikes rebel forces in libya claim they've made more ground against colonel gadhafi is false and. tripoli accuses the international community of taking sides and says as far as coalition partners go far from protecting civilians they're harming them on policy in the capital city join me in a few moments formal. russia's top general says the coalition's air strikes on libya have brought no results and it's likely the ground troops will soon be deployed. and hundreds of thousands of people have converged on london to cry out against the government cuts in the largest demo the country's experienced in years . and criticizes the operator of the crippled fukushima plant which is leaking

radioactive water the company said to have ignored warnings about the danger a tsunami with. this is a lie from last few days here in central moscow it's not nine pm and eight pm in libya where rebels are claiming they've made further advances on the east of the country they say they've retaken another oil town after we getting control of the strategic oil hub of the beer from colonel gadhafi forces it comes as the country's officials claim over one hundred people were killed in the opening days of the coalition strikes which have now lost in a week well let's get more now from marty's poorness who's in the capital tripoli. although it seems the rebels are now getting some amends what is the situation in the country at the moment. well the latest word we have is that the rebels have

taken the town of edged which is a strategically oil important town in eastern libya it is some one hundred and sixty kilometers from benghazi benghazi of course being the heartbeat of this rebel revolution the word coming through now though is that they were advancing beyond edge ws and that they were around the perimeter of the poor ago which is some forty kilometers per hour the on that much closer to the capital city of tripoli inside edge ws there are massive celebrations as can well be expected this is an important town because it is the gateway to the oil reserves in the eastern half of this country now we're hearing though from the libyan government from the deputy foreign minister that the international community far from being neutral is taking sides in this conflict he went so far as to accuse them of siding with the rebels in the sense that there is strikes are actually causing this advancement and these claims have been backed up by the rebels themselves he is also warning that the longer the coalition powers remain involved the longer this operation will be drawn out so

essentially what he is saying is that the international community argued that it started this operation because it wanted to protect civilian lives the for the more time that this operation continues the more civilians are likely to be killed and we will be know that some one hundred fourteen people were killed and more than four hundred forty five in just the first four days of a strike so no doubt that figure is safe to climb a very different picture emerging from the western part of this country around the town of misrata now there that this town has been held onto by the rebels for some time now it was the last town in the west of this country that the rebels actually still maintain some kind of control we have mount hood that the gadhafi forces have entered on buses snipers of into the city from the western side and we've been hearing for days now that gadhafi has been operating in the city in plain clothes using civilian cars we're hearing increasingly more and more reports like this now the american prison. barack obama says that he is satisfied with this operation he

said that it has saved many civilian lives but a very different would coming out of tripoli the libyan leader moammar gadhafi saying that he is promoting those of his soldiers who have been involved in this fight for their heroic efforts against the crusader enemies. nato is soon set to take control of the mission now is this move winning support amongst libyans there. well it's certainly not winning support among the libyan government they would much rather that no one in the international community was involved here among the rebels themselves there is growing concern because the understanding is that as soon as you have the twenty eight member alliance calling the shots it's an awful difficult to have robust stringent action on the ground so we are hearing the stirrings of concern that as the rebels call for most weapons as they call for more is types which is indeed what they are calling for and again that is why many here are starting to wonder just how long this operation is going to go on for if indeed the international community responds to those kind of course the rebels themselves

also loosely organized they have a very light within reach compared to the weaponry that gadhafi forces are using so people get very much suspecting that if the international community is going to remain involved in this conflict in what might need to be on the weapons and there's even the stirrings of the first suggestions here in tripoli that despite the fact that that u.n. resolution one nine seven three clearly said that there would be no ground forces it also said that there would be the use of all it necessary measures which is why some people here in tripoli are beginning to suggest that that might mean the eventual deployment of ground forces now the african union is one of the latest bodies to come to the party they were against a military intervention from the start but they're now calling to facilitate peace talks between both sides the libyan delegation to the african union has said that the deaf ears prepared to make some concessions he might even go so far as to call for you but opposition leaders are rejecting this out fight they do not believe the libyan leader and also they say that they will have nothing to do with him short of

him actually stepping out of the political climate so they really want moammar gadhafi gone from the political atmosphere but if indeed these claims are correct in terms of the concessions he's been paid to make the international community again faces a whole host of questions how then can it argue continuing with its operation if indeed the begin meat is put paid to meet some of the concessions that have been demanded of him. often for the snow. thanks very much indeed for that a live update from tripoli. well as colonel gadhafi troops exchanged fire with rebels and the coalition forces continue their strikes many libyans are fleeing their homes hundreds of thousands of already become refugees in the ongoing violence and more are expected to join them as i reports now from the libyan egyptian border. so far the humanitarian situation hasn't really improved much thousands of people are continuing to flee libya each day looking for safety and better living conditions the main flow of refugees is on libya as

a western border with tunisia but many people are going to egypt as well we've met this family we were from. they said that to be humanitarian situation in the city is critical at the moment they were saying how they're not actually fleeing because their home has been destroyed the zone feel safe there anymore and said that they were going to wait out here in egypt as he was going on there maybe come back when things settle down when it comes to egypt actually many towns and cities in europe the egyptian libyan border security has been really strengthened there also there have been changes on the egyptian would be in border itself if we hear of that just several weeks ago it was patrolled basically only by egyptian border guards who are people who are letting people in and out of the country now it's being patrolled by both sides there are representatives of the so-called national police in the libya

whole so checking documents of the people that are going through the border so maybe the opposition is gaining some more. some more control over the situation and perhaps just simply discipline them but judging by these figures thousands of refugees each day and in total according to the u.n. over three hundred thousand people have already fled libya the situation hasn't improved much and to the goal of the whole military operation by the alliance which was to improve the lives of ordinary people and make it safer for ordinary people to live there at the moment in libya that still has not been changed unfortunately . and by the way you'll find our correspondents firsthand accounts on libya on our twitter feed and also facebook page parties paula flair and we just saw there a moment ago well they're keeping us updated with all the latest developments from where they are have to do is just search for r t underscore com to follow breaking

news from those correspondents there and you can also find us on facebook stay updated on our page it is our t.v. news. from the danish institute for international studies says this operation in libya is proving to be another key test for the e.u. and nato and there's no sign of how it will conclude. it is fair to say that there finitely there is no clear understanding of what the endgame of this mission is supposed to be clearly all the big bold aspirations about the e.u. playing a foreign and security policy role here are really being discredited i mean if there was one field and one a battleground where the e.u. should have proven its ambitions well this is precisely its back yard and clearly you are seeing that this is not working and then of course the other issue is that who is left to do the job and then we are back at the old cold war style alliance

and that is the nato option if the idea of ground troops becomes actual their objective would become regime change rather than protecting the civilian population if ground troops are not considered the only other option by enforcing the no fly zone is really to try and give the opposition a fair chance to or throwing good duffy by their own means so there we are in a whole different ball game as to looking at various options for supporting the opposition but clearly ground troops is not one of them and i think the libyan opposition or whoever is speaking for them of the moment has been quite clear about that they don't want western ground troops on the ground well russia's top general says the coalition's aerial operation in libya has brought no results so it might not be long before ground troops are sent in russia's envoy to nato meanwhile believes the unknowns could find itself involved in another major war along with

afghanistan and iraq and in the going to has more. the head of rushes the chief of staff general in the climate of did say that in his opinion the operation conducted by the coalition forces in libya is failing and that most most likely they will have to resort to use of ground troops in the libya and if that happens that will be a direct violation of the u.n. security council resolution which does not permit that sort of involvement in libya general makarios sentiments were echoed by the opinion of russia's envoy to nato with me today goes in who did say that by what he's hearing and observing in brussels it does look like nato officials are also thinking in terms of the ground a variation as the most likely result of the ongoing situation in libya there also there's also information coming from the united states navy that around four thousand sailors and marines have been shipped off to the mediterranean in order to assist the ongoing operation in libya at the moment at the same time state

department also made a statement on saturday saying that the united states is not going to participate in ground operation in libya mr goes into russia is going to nato is saying that the operation nevertheless will take place on the ground and that is because the coalition and nato are caving in under the pressure from the united states and if that actually will have a result on the situation in libya it forces will be on the ground that that will. win or goes into opinion that will put the united states into a third losing war that's alongside iraq and afghanistan also the the the heads of the opposition of their position forces in libya themselves have thanks the coalition for the airstrikes which they believe are helping to undermine mcduffie's regime but they have asked the coalition and they did to refrain from putting troops on the ground so we have to see if that cold will actually go unheeded by the coalition and nato or whether they will listen and comply with

their resolution and. with a request from the libyan opposition. one america's present position at the helm of the campaign in libya has already led to a spike in antiwar sentiment on home soil the highest recorded surge in decades according to a new gallup poll results is going to teach cohen reports the title of the operation could spell a long and painful conflict for the u.s. coalition is calling this operation odyssey dawn odyssey dawn odyssey dawn what's in a name the names that the u.s. previously gave to its campaigns kind of make more sense like desert storm in the gulf war or operation enduring freedom and of gametes then or iraqi freedom but odyssey dawn on top of making no sense as a combination of words in itself if you interpret it it actually means something really lame the entire thing or the word don could it possibly imply that what we have now is just the beginning we talked to the u.s.

command in africa that was tasked to come up with two words and they say the title does not mean anything what happened is there is a group of planning officers led by a lieutenant colonel to sit down in the early days of planning and came up to look at the list and they decided to call it odyssey just because they like the sound of odyssey. the second part of the word and the second part of the nickname is basically chosen at random but amid the growing confusion that americans have over the alternate goal that their government pursues in the oil rich north african country the title suggests different interpretations the title is confused and says the operation so is the public understanding of the operation so i think it's all it's all very confusing what's really unhappy is that if you think about the odyssey it's the story about these people wandering around the mediterranean for ten years not able to find their way and that seems exactly the wrong metaphor for what what they want to convey about this president obama said the u.s.

will be in and out of libya in no time. the name odyssey dawn seems to be an entourage for a quick operation considering it this is is ten year journey to return home after a ten year war it in some ways represents the lack of clarity as to what the objective of the mission is if americans in their own hearts could call it something it would be operation here today gone tomorrow for many in the u.s. odyssey dawn has become a joke following odyssey dawn. nearly name a combat operation after a yes album i want to see don't one. that's not a military operation that's a carnival cruise ship i don't want and i was thinking. i know her but not only do most u.s. comedians poke fun at the name of the operation they also best express the growing public prostration over the u.s. involvement poll showing the last four decades americans disapproval of

a military action has never been as high as it is now with the libyan convention the pentagon saying that. activities in libya that we're only going to be in for a short time and then we're pulling out and they are many times where there are ladies where it war. oh do you many here like homer's odysseus it may take the u.s. years to finish the journey. was going to check out our t. washington d.c. . when a little later this hour we had to new york where web journalist laurie how often this is being out in the streets to find out what people there think about the legitimacy of the invasion into libya. we. we don't know what the opposition forces we don't know if they're communists we don't know if they are democratic all we're saying is don't bomb them with heavy duty weapons when they have just pistols when the other countries the allies freed us from the from the

nazi party that it was ok. but the modern was always with paired with economic reasons then i don't think it's ok. hundreds of thousands of people from across the u.k. have gathered in london to voice their anger over the government's proposed massive slashes to public spending a protest against the eighty billion pound austerity cuts has become britain's largest when laura emmet reports now from the heart of the ranee. it became towards the end of the day as we've seen lloyd's demonstration with out to five hundred thousand people on the streets of london demonstrating against what they see as when jay cuts that the government is going to make to the public sector over the next school year is a very short period of time well it has been largely peaceful here in hyde park in other areas of the city means thousand people in our village street with the police

trying to use the controversial technique of capturing to contain them the police believe where in the riot gear they've smashed windows on. the streets and regent street london's main shopping areas and we've seen more than fourteen people injured some of the protesters of trade. and police notices that maybe just maybe reject tiles and most serious given that they've thrown a mania police officers which could potentially blind. this to mr asian had been in the planning stages for a long time since december that's a whole new dimension to it now that the u.k. is involved in yet another war in a foreign country this military intervention in libya feeling that way said that the u.k. is spending four and a half a million dollars a day on the military intervention in libya against the backdrop of these cuts are

inflicting on that country now it's going to chill priests from the start of the whole coalition and he told me why it was so important for him to show up today if we were to stop the wars in afghanistan and the attack on libya we would have a very very last portion of the government steps it dealt with a single blow. very first more to the attack on libya over one hundred cruise missiles were for those cruise missiles one hundred million dollars worth of resources blowed up every day with every single weapon that the strike a lot of fights over much occasion for people. here to calculate how many places at universities that would mean how many libraries that would be out of the hospital with me so i think it's very very graphic be brought home to people here what the financial cost of this is these demonstrations have been taking place at the beginning of the winter and yet the u.k. government came out with a new budget basically doesn't appear to take in people. into account at all they

remain to be whether the government is made by the huge turnout of people that we've seen on the streets of london today nor emmett's reporting there from london japan's government has criticized the operator of the radiation leaking fukushima nuclear plant for its efforts to control the crisis it comes amid reports of research as warnings two years earlier of the danger a tsunami posed to the plant were ignored it's been over two weeks now since the devastating earthquake and tsunami which caused the accident to the facility if death toll from the disaster stands over ten thousand with many more missing or homeless emergency teams are still struggling to control the situation at the stricken fukushima nuclear plant several workers sustained radiation burns while installing cables as part of efforts to restore the critical cooling systems you can energy experts say the damage to the site is having a dangerous effect on the environment and people's health. i think it's catastrophic i think that the narrative that we've had for the last week or so

which is that we're trying to fix the problem and get it under control is misleading i think that there's evidence of radiation having entered the environment in large amounts it's turning up in lots of places in water and food it's even being detected far away what this could mean is that there is really a significant entry of radiation going out into the environment right now and that there doesn't appear to be any any any halt to it in the near future so that's very catastrophic this is not something that is a situation that may get out of control this is a situation that is having. the catastrophic impact currently already on since significantly dangerous there's been high levels of radiation detected out of the twenty kilometer limit already in what you have it when you have radiation levels of that of that level is that in a week or two you'll have people that are experiencing the radiation exposure of nuclear plant workers you know over the course of their career and these are people

in a situation where there's been an earthquake there's been a tsunami there's a shortage of food there's a shortage of water so their health is already stressed their bodies are already stressed they may not be in heated homes and one thing may not be getting electricity so the impact of these exposures will be even larger. so they. do receive in the course of a week or two the exposures the nuclear plant workers receive in their entire lives is rather dire these people should not be allowed to remain in such an exposure area. and that was nuclear energy expert dr robert jacobs that by the way there are always more stories in-depth analysis on our website dot com including no way back when u.s. soldier could face the death penalty for desert unless he gets political asylum in germany and. russia nor make his apostle new rule for themselves so now there's to be no mini skirts no low cut tops and even no smoking in the state duma.

told the web site r.t. dot com let's have a quick look at some other international news making headlines this hour a syrian human rights activist says over two hundred political prisoners have been released in the country this is pressure increases on president bashar al assad in the southern city of toughness thousands of protesters are out in the streets and the ruling party headquarters has been nearby there are hundreds have been demanding the president step down on friday at least twenty three protests were killed in the city during a violent crackdown on. yemen now in the country's foreign minister says he hopes for a deal on the transfer of power on saturday it comes after president saleh announced he's ready to policies roll into trust where he hands the leader off or to step down by the year's end after next month's country's two months of anti-government protests but fifty two demonstrators short. and to jordan now where two people have been beaten to death after pro-government loyalists attacked a vigil in the capital one hundred protesters almost all of them students and

passions king's horses used to disperse said the two thousand demonstrators record for reforms and more efforts to fight corruption. and the number of people killed by a strong earthquake in myanmar has increased to seventy five with more than one hundred injured many of the victims died when their homes were buried in a landslide triggered by thursday night's trauma hundreds of houses buddhist monasteries and government buildings were damaged strong aftershocks were felt in thailand. and vietnam. and now for some more on our top story this hour it's been a week since coalition forces intervened in libya and there is growing international concern over whether the action is justified journalist marie harf in the stores and then as the resident collective a snapshot of opinion from the streets of new york. as the situation in libya heats up foreign militaries are starting to get more

involved should they be this week let's talk about that do you think we could ever know what it's like for the libyans there but we didn't choose sides we don't know what the opposition forces we don't know if they're communists we don't know if they are democratic or saying is don't bomb them with heavy duty weapons when they have just pistols i think it's ok to send troops to leave. i don't want to become a second iraq or something there. so do you support your country's decision to stay out of it i understand germany's decision because of course with our history with it's really difficult for us to send our troops to other countries how would you feel about another country coming into your country depends on the motive when the other countries the allies freed us from the from the nazi party that it was ok. but the modern war so to say always with paired with economic reasons and

then i don't think it's ok there's so many uprisings going on in the middle east why are foreign countries getting involved in libya yeah that's a good question. i mean i think it's really important that the united nations backs war like this or an attack and perhaps we should get involved in more countries do you think the world has a plan for what comes next in libya probably not. but probably not so you think they should if they're going to go in there and try to oust the leader oh i think we have to if it's going to be a democracy obviously and that's one going towards have to have to put in put in place elections and examine it but other than that it. it's a tough question to answer because you see what's going on over there and you. it's kind of hard not to want to help whether or not you think foreign military intervention in libya is right the bottom line is that at this point world leaders seem determined to get involved it's.

twenty seven minutes past the hour here in the russian capital stay with us for a recap of the hour's top stories that's in about three minutes from now and then that'll be followed by technology in which we get to know if the space race along with the cold war that's coming your way in a few minutes from now stay with us life here in moscow.

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